Morgan Smith Reporter

Morgan Smith
reports on politics and education for the Tribune, which she joined in November 2009. She writes about the effects of the state budget, school finance reform, accountability and testing in Texas public schools. Her political coverage has included congressional and legislative races, as well as Gov. Rick Perry's presidential campaign, which she followed to Iowa and New Hampshire.
In 2013, she received a National Education Writers Association award for "Death of a District," a series on school closures. After earning a bachelor's degree in English from Wellesley College, she moved to Austin in 2008 to enter law school at the University of Texas.
A San Antonio native, her work has also appeared in Slate, where she spent a year as an editorial intern in Washington D.C.

Recent Contributions

On June 24, 2014, volunteers gather at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, where the Rio Grande Valley Catholic Charities have a makeshift shelter to help handle the surge of immigrants who have crossed into the U.S. in recent weeks.

Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams told federal education officials the state would take an additional year to pilot a new teacher evaluation system based in part on student standardized test performance.

UPDATED: Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams told State Board of Education members Wednesday that said that when he approved a charter school's expansion into the Dallas area, he was following the spirit of a 2013 law.

A study released by Sam Houston State University in October 2013 that was commissioned by the Texas State Teachers Association showed a marked increase in teachers reporting that they had taken second jobs during the school year to make ends meet.

Stacked up against other states, Texas public schools could win the best-bang-for-your-buck competition. The state spends less than most others, and its students perform better than many. But the commitment to fiscal restraint has come with its own burdens for teachers.

Texas' improvement on national academic measures has begun to stall in recent years. In 2013, for the first time in 15 years, math and reading scores went down or stayed the same for black and Hispanic students in both fourth and eighth grades. The scores also went down for Anglo students in some areas.

Parents look over books and ask questions about curriculum during a parent information session for the new Great Hearts Monte Vista Charter School to open in San Antonio at Temple Beth-El, October 29, 2013.

In three statewide Republican runoff races, candidates who have aligned themselves to the right of their opponents are poised to capture the party's nomination despite fielding significant blows from their opponents, including forays into mental health records from three decades ago and a potentially disqualifying violation of state securities law.

In closing arguments to voters Tuesday night, incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and his challenger, state Sen. Dan Patrick, avoided much of the spitefulness that has characterized the Republican contest.

Since the March Republican primary, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has received about $1.7 million in political contributions — compared with about $4.4 million by his runoff opponent, state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst reiterated Monday that his campaign was not responsible for the release of GOP runoff opponent Dan Patrick’s medical records, though he stopped short of saying the information was irrelevant.